Food safety is increasingly of global concern after a series of food-related scandals—from contaminated milk to fraudulent olive oil, among others—have appeared in international headlines in recent years. In order to ensure consumer well-being and to certify that food exports meet international food safety standards, it is essential that the quality, safety and credibility of food products can be properly evaluated. This requires competent institutional and analytical capabilities to reliably detect and monitor chemical residues and other food contaminants.
Twenty-eight food safety scientists from around the world have met on 18-22 April in Santiago, Chile for the first coordination meeting of an interregional food safety technical cooperation (TC) project supported by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division. The project builds on experiences from previous national and regional TC projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been instrumental in bridging the experience gap between countries of the same region. Nevertheless, there are still areas for improvement, for example with respect to agrochemical residues, chemical hazard monitoring, and food safety programmes in general across regions, given the globalization of trade in food stuff.
Participants at the meeting also identified common areas of interest, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each participating country. Based on shared priorities and diverse technical capabilities, participating Member States were assigned to specific working groups which are expected to deliver reliable data on food contaminants between 2016 and 2019.
